Charades Rules

In case you haven't played charades in a while, we have decided to lay out the rules in this article for you! Below, you will find the general rules for playing charades, along with rules for playing in team charades and single charades, and additional rules you can add in to make the game easier or harder. But remember, charades is all about having fun! Don't be afraid to leave some of these out or make up your own rules!

If you haven't played charades in a very long while, you can click here to check out our article on how to play charades.

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General Charades Rules

Here are a list of general rules that can be followed whether you decide to play team charades or single charades!

  • The player acting out should pick a charades card out of a hat, bag, etc without looking. Don't have cards? No problem! You can use our free online charades generator to make things quicker and easier! For this, the player acting out is only allowed to click on the generate button once, and act out the word or phrase that appears.
  • Timer - you only have 60 seconds to act out your word or phrase. Feel free to increase or decrease this time if you would like!
  • Score sheet - one correct guess equals one point. You could play first to ten points for example, or keep the score going until you decide to stop playing… if you ever do of course.
  • Score sheet - if someone breaks any rules, a point is deducted from that player's/team's score.
  • No talking while you act out your word or phrase.
  • No mouthing words while acting out.

Team Charades

These are a list of rules for playing in teams! If you would like the rules for single charades, keep scrolling!

  • Teams should be divided equally with the same amount of players on each side - or near enough if playing with an odd number.
  • Everyone on a team must act out at least once before someone on the team acts out for the second time. People should also act out in order - i.e. if you were the second person in the team to act out a word or phrase, you must then be the second person to act out after everyone in the team has acted out.
  • The team that is not acting out and guessing cannot talk or distract the opposing team while they try to guess.
  • The team acting out and trying to guess must act out in front of the opposition to avoid cheating.
  • Score sheet - one correct guess equals one point for the team guessing.

Single Charades

If you don't have enough players for team charades or if you would rather keep scores individual, these are some great rules to abide by! If you would rather play in teams, scroll back up for some team charades rules!

  • Similar to team charades, players should act out in order so that everyone gets to act out the same amount as everyone else! However, you can also play so that the person that guesses correctly gets to act out again.
  • The person acting out must act out in front of everyone in order to be fair to everyone playing.
  • Players that are meant to be acting out cannot purposely refuse to act out in order to prevent other players from scoring.
  • Players guessing cannot help others that are guessing.
  • Score sheet - one correct guess equals one point each to both the person guessing and the person acting out.

Additional Charades Rules

Here are some additional rules that you can add or remove to make your game of charades harder or easier!

  • No pointing to objects in the room.
  • No sounds - for example, making a vroom sound to signify a car.
  • Only one guess per player, whether in team or single charades. You can set the limit higher if you would like!
  • Only one guess per player until everyone has guessed once.
  • Score sheet:
    • An incorrect guess equals minus one point for the person guessing. In single charades this can be difficult to referee as the person acting out may purposely act out poorly.
    • Three points rewarded if the first guess of the round was correct. In single charades both the person guessing and person acting out receive three points each.
    • Minus one point for the person acting out if no one guesses correctly. In single charades this can be difficult to referee as the people guessing may purposely guess incorrectly or not guess at all.
    • Minus three points for not guessing in a round. This can apply to the team as a whole in team charades or individually in single charades.
    • Don't be afraid to come up with some of your own scoring rules! The above are some you can choose to follow or ignore to make the game more interesting. However there are many different scoring rules you can come up with to make the game more interesting - go experiment!

No. 1 Rule - Have Fun

Hopefully some of the above rules have helped to structure your game more and make it more interesting! But remember, the main reason for playing charades is to have fun! Try not to create or remove rules that exclude people or make the game unfair. When playing with children, it might be better to remove some of these rules, or even just the score sheet, to keep everyone happy and entertained! If this is the case, you can check out our free online charades generator for kids for more relevant words and phrases for everyone to act out!

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